Ash Carter

The United States military is a huge organization with critical responsibilities. When it undertakes big changes, they need to be thoroughly assessed in advance and carefully formulated to minimize unwanted effects. President Donald Trump’s decision to ban transgender individuals, which he announced without waiting for a Pentagon review in an abrupt series of tweets last summer, is a case study in how not to change course. On Monday, unsurprisingly, a federal court blocked his policy from being carried out.

His ban overturned a policy announced by President Barack Obama’s defense secretary, Ash Carter, in June 2016 after a yearlong review. At the time, Carter...

Related "Ash Carter" Articles

The United States military is a huge organization with critical responsibilities. When it undertakes big changes, they need to be thoroughly assessed in advance and carefully formulated to minimize unwanted effects. President Donald Trump’s decision to...

Military chiefs will seek a six-month delay before letting transgender people enlist in their services, officials said Friday.
After meetings this week, the service leaders hammered out an agreement that rejected Army and Air Force requests for a...

A former three-star Army general from Chicago who used his government credit card to pay four-figure bar tabs at clubs in Rome and Seoul, South Korea, will retire as a one-star general, the Army said Thursday.Ronald Lewis was profiled in a front-page...

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has arrived in Baghdad to meet with American commanders and Iraqi leaders and to assess progress in the fight to retake the northern city of Mosul from the Islamic State group.
The unannounced visit on Sunday came as...

Islamic State militants re-entered the historic city of Palmyra in central Syria on Saturday for the first time since they were expelled by Syrian and Russian forces nine months ago.
The activist-run Palmyra Coordination network said the militants had...

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Friday made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan to consult with military commanders and deliver a pre-holiday pep talk to U.S. troops.
It is Carter's last planned trip to Afghanistan before handing off his Pentagon...

Military leaders are trying to fix the lengthy, inconsistent process for investigating senior officers accused of misconduct, The Associated Press has learned. They are seeking to change a hodgepodge system in which investigations can drag on for years...

The Obama administration declared its support Thursday for requiring women to register for the military draft, a symbolic but significant shift that reflects the U.S. military's evolution from a male-dominated force to one seeking to incorporate women...

The heads of the Pentagon and the nation's intelligence community have recommended to President Obama that the director of the National Security Agency, Adm. Michael Rogers, be removed.
The recommendation, delivered to the White House last month, was...

An explosion at a U.S. airfield in Afghanistan early Saturday morning killed four people, the U.S. military said.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said in a statement that two U.S. servicemen and two American contractors were killed in the explosion....

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Wednesday that he has ordered the Pentagon to suspend its efforts to collect payment from California Army National Guard soldiers who were told to return their enlistment bonuses.
Carter announced a number of steps to...

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter visited Irbil on Sunday for a closer assessment of the fight against the Islamic State group in northern Iraq and to hear from Kurdish leaders whose forces launched a new offensive in the operation to wrest Mosul from the...

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter's push for Iraq to let Turkey play a role in the Mosul battle encountered resistance Saturday from Iraq's prime minister, who said his country's forces will oust Islamic State the militants from the northern city.
"I...

Air Force Gen. Lori J. Robinson on Friday became the first woman to lead a top-tier U.S. warfighting command when she took charge of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command in Colorado.
Robinson — one of just two female...

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus had a simple message Tuesday for 1,500 Marines and sailors: The decision to let women compete for all military combat positions is as irreversible as earlier edicts to integrate blacks and allow gays and lesbians to openly...

Declaring that strong encryption is essential to the nation's security, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told a tech industry audience Wednesday that he's "not a believer in back doors," or encryption programs that leave openings for outsiders to read coded...

Uncle Sam is looking for a few good hackers.
As part of an effort to test its cybersecurity, the Defense Department is challenging computer geeks from the private sector to hack its public websites and networks. To sweeten the pot for would-be hackers,...

Last Saturday's GOP debate was disastrous for many reasons — Ben Carson's awkward refusal to step on stage, Marco Rubio's deer-in-the-headlights moment and the free pass granted to Donald Trump by his terrified rivals count among the many lowlights —...

Published in Chicago Tribune on February 12, 2016 — Print headline: "Are women warriors or weaklings?"